By Lillyan Baker

Pizza Margherita

This past year I have enjoyed providing as much TLC as I could for all of my sweet, little flowers and plants growing on my covered porch. Some of the plants have sweated it out and survived the Texas heat, including one I nursed back to green from its original sunburned state on the clearance shelf at my local nursery. Don’t get me wrong; I’m no green thumb angel. There have been a few casualties. During my mom’s last visit I asked her what I should do to revive my plants. Her answer…pray. Even though I’ve had my ups and downs with my emerald porch, my herb garden has beat the odds and completely thrived. What once began as a mini mountain of small seeds has now grown into luscious leaves from my OCD water routine, anxious love and a few Amens thrown in for good measure. Each seed was carefully pressed in the calculated soil divided by an imaginary dirt line to section off the basil, chives and curly parsley. To my complete surprise, only basil grew in the place I planted the chives and parsley and nothing grew in the designated basil area. No worries, I could live without the other herbs since I’m more of an Italian parsley kind of girl. With the convenience of the fresh herbs right outside my door, I have been using the basil in several dishes, including lemon garlic shrimp fettuccine and rosemary basil baked chicken. This past weekend for my date night with Trey, we decided to enjoy an evening of homemade pizza with friends featuring personal pizza toppings and wine as the cost of admission.

All great pizza starts with the dough, so it was important that we got this part right.  I knew if anyone had a perfect pizza dough recipe it would be Kristina Vanni from Better Recipes. She tweeted me back Pizzeria Mozza fantastic steps to success.

Pizzeria Mozza Pizza Dough

1. Put the water in the bowl of a standing mixer. Add the yeast and let it sit for a few minutes to dissolve.

2. Add the bread flour, rye flour, wheat germ and honey and mix on low speed with a dough hook for 2 minutes. Add the salt, increase the speed to high, and mix the dough for 6 to 7 minutes, until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. While the dough is mixing, lightly grease a large bowl with olive oil.

3. Turn the dough out of the bowl and wrap it tightly with plastic wrap. Tightly wrap the perimeter of the bowl with kitchen twine or with another piece of plastic wrap to further seal the bowl. Set the dough aside at moderate room temperature (68-70 degrees) for 45 minutes.

4. Dust your work surface lightly with flour and turn the dough out onto the floured surface. Turn the edges of the dough toward the center, acting as if the round has four sides. Turn the dough over and place it, folded side down, back in the bowl. Cover the bowl again with plastic wrap and set it aside for 45 minutes.

5. Dust your work surface again lightly with flour and turn the dough out onto the floured surface. Divide the dough into six equal segments, each weighing approximately 7 ounces. Gently tuck the edges of each round of the dough under itself. Shape each segment into a round. Cover the dough rounds with a clean dish towel and let them rest for 5 minutes.

Hand-mixing Dough: Possible But Not Advisable

6. Lightly flour your hands and use both hands pulling toward you to gather each round of dough into a taught ball. Dust a baking sheet generously with flour and place the dough rounds on the baking sheet. Cover the baking sheet with a dishcloth and set them again at moderate room temperature (68-70 degrees) for 1 hour. Leave the dough rounds at room temperature as you shape each round. Use the dough immediately.

The recipe was just perfect. Our only problem was that we decided to have our date night at Trey’s place instead of mine, which housed my stand-mixer. Needless to say, this pizza dough was made with Trey’s strong might. So in case you don’t have a stand mixer or a brawny date, it is possible to form the dough by mixing it by hand, just be prepared for cooking, Jillian Michaels’ style.

Next up was the homemade pizza sauce. This is something Trey and I made up along the way and it was amazing. We even baked some of the pizza dough as bread and used the sauce for dipping.

Trey’s Tomato Sauce

Dana & Spencer Piling On Their Pizza Toppings.

First we sautéed the garlic and onion in extra virgin olive oil until the onions began to brown. Then we added the remaining ingredients and let them simmer as we rolled out the first pizza dough. Rolling out pizza dough and decorating with toppings is a great way to entertain friends while preparing dinner at the same time. Once the dough was ready, we brushed extra virgin olive oil along the surface to make sure we had the crispy, crunchy crust we wanted.

Dana and Spencer went first and piled on their toppings of pepperoni, mushroom, fresh mozzarella and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. At 475 degrees and for 45 minutes, their pizza baked into a melted-cheese masterpiece that we all enjoyed as the second pizza baked in the oven.

Trey and I always joke that we never eat until after 10 p.m. The first time I cooked for him I didn’t set the oven temperature hot enough and it took forever for my green chili pork chops and hominy dish to bake. The same scenario happened when he cooked for me the first time and created the most flavorful meatloaf I have ever had. I guess you could say it’s our thing, because we weren’t spreading the pizza sauce around the dough until after the sun went down.

Good Food, Good Wine, Good Friends

For the second pizza, Trey and I wanted to really utilize my fresh basil so we did pizza margherita. With the same sauce as the base, we used a variety of toppings, including fresh mozzarella, freshly grated Parmigriano-Reggiano, sliced tomatoes and of course, the star of the night, coarsely chopped basil.

The night didn’t end there. With the extra pizza dough we opted for butter instead of EVOO and made a cinnamon pizza for dessert. With a sprinkle of cinnamon, some sugar and time, our party of four grew to a party of six to enjoy the final dish for the night.

Even if you are not a pizza fan, using this dough for a dessert pizza is a great party idea. You could even spread cream cheese on the dough and cover it with mixed fruit for a fresh and light summer dessert.

Saved The Best For Last, Cinnamon Pizza!

Thanks again to the amazing recipe Queen,  Kristina at Better Recipes for your suggestion on what pizza dough recipe to use. Because of you, our date night was a success and my little herb garden is ready to be the center of attention again. Next up, rosemary and Italian parsley. With the bountiful basil to look up to, I think these new herbs can forget about living on a prayer, they’re ready for date night!